Bullet-point Report: “Aaranya Kaandam”

With most mainstream films, especially in Tamil, you know some fifteen minutes in if they’re working for you (or not). These are the films made expressly with you in mind, thinking that they know what you want, the pandering productions. But there are a few that leave you hanging until almost the end – “Hmmm… I’m really enjoying this… But where is it going?… Am I really liking it (as an organic whole) or is it just the laughs giving me a high? – and then, gradually, things begin to cohere and reshape your entire thus-far experience, and you slap your forehead and smile and say wow! This is one of those films.

The film began to belie my this-is-what’s-it’s-going-to-be-like expectations right from the opening credits. Seeing the trailer, with its non-stop use of sound and with its bustling busy-ness, I looked forward to a highly charged credits sequence, one that signalled its pop-culture-pastiche intentions with unabashed pride, with psychedelic colours and wacka-chaka music. But the names appeared very simply, and very silently. There was no sound at all.

But elsewhere, Yuvan Shankar Raja unleashes a background score I didn’t frankly know he was capable of, an eccentric score that’s perfectly in sync with the film’s eccentric characters, what you’d expect to hear in the soundtrack if Jean-Pierre Jeunet made one of his soaked-in-whimsy movies in Tamil. (I suspect, though, that the director had a great deal to do with getting exactly the score he wanted. It’s that whole thing we talked about earlier, about “collaborative creativity.”) I mean, there’s an out-of-nowhere burst from Four Seasons at one point, for crying out loud!

The heroine did not work for me at all. Her voice. Her walk. Her smile. That puff-sleeved blouse. There was a tweeness to everything about her that took me right out of the character she was playing, and I couldn’t help thinking – especially given what she turns out to be – that this role needed someone with more presence.

Speaking of whom, is that the first scene of a Tamil-film heroine in a bra putting on a blouse since Sujatha in Aval Oru Thodarkadhai? Yeah, I know what you’re thinking: Romba mukkiyam! But hey, this is what pop-minutiae is comprised of, these nuggets of nothingness.

Her first scene with Jackie is a gem. She comes out of the bathroom. He’s at the other end of the room, swatting away imaginary flies and inspecting his face in a mirror, a louche lion (fond of baring his fangs), as the Tamil version of Koi yahaan aha naache naache leaks in from the outside, followed by Tholin mele baaram ille. He crosses the room and throws her on the bed, and the camera begins to circle the surroundings, stopping at a dirty mirror opposite them, in which we see that he’s on top of her. A grunt. The camera is back at their side. He can’t get it up. He slaps her. And then, she utters what is surely one of the greatest first-lines-of-a-movie of all time: Ungalaala mudiyalenna enna yen adikkareenga? And instantly, the tone, the pitch, the colour of what’s to follow is set.

The following discussion – outside, amongst Jackie’s underlings – about aunty-baiting is another gem, and a nod to the dialogue rhythms of Tarantino (like that other, superb story about Gajendran and Gajapathy and the woman with the missing thumb, the very definition of “pulp fiction,” lurid and expansively literary and also wholly likely). I suppose there are those who’ll say that the director, here, has done nothing more than transpose his Hollywood-DVD education (along with stray plotlines from the likes of Yojimbo, and maybe a boxed-inside-a-TV shot from Sirk) to a Tamil-saakkadai milieu, and therefore there’s no real voice that’s visible, just the feeling of being in the presence of a master mimic. But I think there is a voice, even if I haven’t quite yet cottoned on to what that voice is.

Though it’s certainly a (refreshingly) foul-mouthed voice: “Anniyaa?” “Ille, s*nni.” Why this pretense, by the censors, that outside the theatres we all speak with the softness of sages? People swear, you know – kids, adults, men, women, everyone! Votha! (Not that I’d say that myself. I prefer the more elegant — okay, okay, the more Peter-ish — “fuck.”)

There’s a tendency to (cleverly) disorient the audience by showing an event and then showing how that event came to be. Pasupathy is on a bike. But how did he get that bike? Because – as we see a few frames later – he took a shovel and aimed it at the torso of a poor man riding towards him and then stole the bike.

Vettrimaran, please note: This is how you film a cockfight. With mood. And with fades to black. We don’t want realism and distractingly done graphics. We just want the experience to not feel fake, and – if we’re lucky – to not yank us out of the tension of the scene.

I cannot recall the last term I heard the word dhaddhi in a film. It’s quite a common word. Why don’t we hear it more often?

What a great time for anyone who knows that the eighties was the greatest decade ever – Unnai azhaithathu kann from Thaai Veedu, Ponmeni uruguthey from Moondram Pirai, Sandhana kaatre from Thanikaatu Raja, Kaattu vazhi pora penne from Malaiyoor Mambattiyan, Vaa vaa pakkam vaa from Thanga Magan. But no newer songs, not one?

There were portions that struck me as very gimmicky – the videogame screen with the lovers escaping the way Subbu and Sappai want to, for one. And then the oil-massage stretch with a naked Jackie. The quirk-factor, in these portions, wasn’t organic but overdetermined. “Look ma, how weird and wonderfully oddball I can be!”

But mostly otherwise, what vividly eccentric characters and situations! All of them! Jackie trying to learn that “Enakku elaneer pidikkum” is, in English, “I love tender coconut…” Jackie giving Ravi Krishna a couple of notes so that the latter can show his mistress a good time, and then yanking back a note… Ravi Krishna fearing that his life is about to end and then discovering that it’s just a couple of cans of water… Pasupathy running and thinking and thinking and running, reflecting on his plight and forming a course of action and slyly spoon-feeding the audience at the same time… The josiyar who you think will end up with a couple of bullets in his breast…

If every character had been so eccentric, so colourful, we would be left with a live-action cartoon with no sense of danger to anyone. That’s why Pasupathy is the straight guy, as normal as a film like this will allow someone to be. And that is why there had to be a normal underpinning as well, that of small creatures being devoured by bigger creatures, that of selfish survival, the dharma espoused at the film’s opening.

Kodukapuli’s father is one of the great losers in the cinema – his lines are often so funny that you’re laughing with him, and also at him. And yet, we don’t lose sight of the undefined affection between father and exasperated son – the care with which the son bathes and dresses the father and sprinkles a bit of good-luck vibhuti in his mouth, or that last line he delivers to Pasupathy, which makes you laugh and also makes you tear up a wee bit at the truth it contains about many fathers and sons. Pasupathy asks, “Unga appa-na romba pidikkuma?” And the boy replies, hesitating just a bit, “Appidi ille – aana avar engappa.” Bravo!

And speaking of lines, I don’t think I’ve seen many gangster movies that made me laugh more. A suspicious cop asks the driver of a car headed to Pondicherry to open his mouth and say aah. The wiseass driver replies, “Ippa dhaan sir porom” Hahahahaha! Also, vellakkaara mookkupodi? Awesome.

I thought this was the best review yet. Sir,could you please just leave right here. I feel these type of reviews would help promote the film more. short but powerful. Now, I don’t think I felt anywhere during the course of this classic that i could forgive the flaws of the previous scene because there were none to be forgiven. With this said, is it safe to say that the narrator is in same frequency with me at the level 0f cognitive functions (can be more precise if you need, do you?).

I loved the film. Hats off to Thiagararaja Kumararaja for bringing out a full length film made for matured audience particularly for guys. No nonsense scenes included for the so-called family audience which are the norms for every tamil film. I am fed up with the concept of having one size fit for all. Overall a brilliant film, I wish upcoming tamil films take a cue from this and start a new journey. And loved the dialogues, thanks TK for the treat!!

Yes , echo your 4 line sentiment ! I loved the way the director toys with the audience , taking us along on the ride and surprising us 🙂 Dying to read more ! And what an awesome b/g score , what an impact !

The review is as tasty as the film was. But did you notice the minute reference to Ramayana, not overstated, where the Pasupathy’s wife is taken away? Anyway, for a first neo noir film in Tamil cinema, this film does brilliantly well. Kodukapuli’s character and his insecure depressed dad giving nuggets about a past life was stuff of noir legend. Dialogs were lovely. “Mutham kuduthu matter pannu.” When was the last time I heard anything as open yet refreshingly honest as that?

As much as I would love to go to a theatre that is not showin Tamil movie with subtitle to the audience that speaks the language this movie’s Steve job style ‘one more thing’ is the subtitle .. As much as I ignored it the one who wrote it was probably writing the dialogue for an English version of this movie .. As hilarious as the dialogues were in Tamil. Not sure how many in India would get to enjoy that !

Venki: Yeah, and I loved the fact that her name was “kasturi” – as in deer 🙂 This is a deceptively deep film — not in the philosophical sense but in that it’s crammed with stuff and is one of those films that could not just use but actually demands a second viewing. Also, I missed a lot of little things because the audience was laughing out so loudly and clapping.

Best scene for me is when Kodukapuli justifies stealing to his dad by retelling his grandma’s tale of “Kaatumani” bringing back the missing bull! What innocence, what curiosity and what an amazing spunk in his thinking on justice and heard-before tales

BR we all know u are a tambrahm. u need not prove it by expressing your unrequited love for the word Dhaddhi in a thamizh film. last I have heard it in the popular milieu is in the Crazy mohan dramas where Maadhu admonishes mythili as “loosu dhaddhi jadam”. and dhaddhi word got me quite a few bully sessions in the north madras school I studied.. when in rome….
Nice Bullet point report of a local thamizh movie.

BR, you have mastered this art of highlighting your reader’s thoughts on the film in question through your reviews/bruminations. I found myself nodding at each of the bullets above.
any chance of a full blown review? or an interview with the director perhaps.

As for Yasmin, casting aside the role itself kinda rang a huge false note for me.dunno why.
and my friend pointed out one of the trailers showed her falling to her death.dunno if that was an imaginary sequence that was edited out or if it was an alternate climax for that character that didnt make the cut.

loved the soundtrack and the use of silence. btw what was that remix which sounded like ‘video killed the reality star’ ? and it wasnt all ilayaraja…i thought i heard a piece from slumdog somewhere…btw yasmin looked like a much hotter version of freida pinto.

Didnt get why some of the cuss words were bleeped and some werent. whats the point!

Arun: No, even Thaai Veedu is not Raja. But a majority of the songs in the soundtrack are. BTW, are you talking about Tholin mele, or something else?

And since film songs are our “pop music,” their use in as specific a manner as in this film is again another nod to a western tradition of punctuating the narrative with pop/rock songs (or even classical music) that were composed for other, earlier films.

(SPOILER ALERT) And about Yasmin, yes, the character is the token femme fatale in this noir universe (or neo noir, if you want to be more vague), and the reveal should have carried greater impact. I found it narratively gripping that she did what she did, but I wasn’t emotionally shattered, and that I guess is a result of casting as well as characterisation.

i dono if they planned it that way – but during the final moment, the tone of the film is all red for sampath & for a moment when the kid says good bye to him, through the opening of the door we see a white tone. Upon the closure of that door he is all red again – completed transformed to a don – i guess.

BR, I love reading your reviews, and sometimes in case of languages that I do not understand, such as in this case, i almost experience the movie through your review. So, I have a minor quibble: I have seen that when you are reviewing a Hindi movie, you usually translate a dialogue to English after stating the dialogue. However, you do not do that for Tamil movies.
Please do, it helps some readers like me, who do not understand Tamil, appreciate/understand the finer nuances of a movie. Thanks!

Apu: With the Hindi films, I was “reviewing” them for the paper (as I do the English films now), and so there was a professional obligation to translate. With these that I do just for the blog, that’s not there. Also, I’m having a bit of fun writing in Tamil and English. That’s all.

I think you’ll still get a sense of what the film is about (or what that particular bullet point is about), even if you ignore the Tamil lines — because translation will only convey a general sense of the line and in a film such as this, the “colour” in the dialogue is what makes it stand out.

Like this point for instance: “Kodukapuli’s father is one of the great losers in the cinema – his lines are often so funny that you’re laughing with him, and also at him. And yet, we don’t lose sight of the undefined affection between father and exasperated son – the care with which the son bathes and dresses the father and sprinkles a bit of good-luck vibhuti in his mouth, or that last line he delivers to Pasupathy, which makes you laugh and also makes you tear up a wee bit at the truth it contains about many fathers and sons. Pasupathy asks, “Unga appa-na romba pidikkuma?” And the boy replies, hesitating just a bit, “Appidi ille – aana avar engappa.” Bravo!”

Even if you ignore the last couple of lines in Tamil, don’t you get a major sense of what is being conveyed?

Gradwolf: As in, like the man who can’t stop watching porn who goes to the shrink and says “my friend has this problem doctor, he can’t stop watching porn?” 😉

Hmmm… it’s very difficult to answer “why” you wrote (or didn’t write) what you wrote (or didn’t write), but I thought the whole Rajini/Kamal thingee came under the pop-culture-pastiche aspirations of the film that I wrote about, which is part of the Tarantino rhythms I mention later. Idhukku mele something in me didn’t feel like belabouring (say) the Baasha point I guess…

Also wanted to add this. Sometimes you try to find different ways to say the same things, like the part about “a louche lion (fond of baring his fangs).” I could have written that this is a film where the characters are all animals and that Jackie is the Singamperumal and therefore the king of the jungle and that the kidnapped Kasturi is named after a deer, a creature that appears in Aaranya Kaandam part of the Ramayana, but something made me want to try the other approach… Maybe I should have done it the other way around?

vijay: I heard that no one from Kollywood was willing to take that role because it would hurt their image. Jackie was fine physically speaking and he didn’t look out of place, but there was that usual annoyance about dubbing being out of sync in places.

Oh actually it is not like the doctor thing! Someone did come to me and ask, did you notice that BR had not mentioned this in his review. I didn’t react much then, just said,”oh ya” but later wondered if that was anything peculiar. I very well know that it’s difficult to answer a question like why you wrote this and not that or some such. But you know there is a school of thought that takes you to be this hard core Kamal fanboy so it just piqued my interest when the friend asked me with some mild sarcasm.

Yes it’s true about trying to say the same things differently. Also, this particular film has so much going for it and like you said,”this is a deceptively deep film”, it’s quite possible that a few things are missed while writing about it.

How is naming someone kasturi deep just because kasturi is a type of deer and we don’t even know the deer that lured seetha was of what type? Ipdi vagueA EdhAvadhu refer paNNinA deepA? Seems more shallow to me than deep – dei kasturinu peru vechuralaam. Apdiye seethavoda connect paNNippAnga makkaL. What significance and depth you see – pls to educate

‘The heroine did not work for me at all. Her voice. Her walk. Her smile. That puff-sleeved blouse. There was a tweeness to everything about her that took me right out of the character she was playing, and I couldn’t help thinking – especially given what she turns out to be – that this role needed someone with more presence.’

Even I was thinking the same in the beginning until I heard the gun-shot, after that everything about her character was upside down for me, Sappa is kind of a kid at heart, the only way to get into his system is play like a child to him that is what she did exactly, I realised it at the end and in that context TK has done a splendid job there too.

Gradwolf: Adding to your comment, even if I were some sort of rabid fanboy, does that obligate me to write about every single mention of him? As if it’s some kind of demonstration of loyalty — if I don’t mention Ilayaraja, then I’m not a hardcore fan, if I don’t mention Kamal, then I’m not a hardcore fan — that sort of thing? 🙂

adhaavadhu, what I am asking is how did you relate naming a character kasturi to be an indication of the deceptive deepness of the film. Shorn of any other context, if the director really intended naming the character kasturi as a nod to his own naming of the movie as aaranya kaandam, I can only see it as “as shallow as it can get”

raj: Do you deliberately misread things so you can get argumentative? 🙂

I said, “Yeah, and I loved the fact that her name was ‘kasturi’ — as in deer 🙂 This is a deceptively deep film — not in the philosophical sense but in that it’s crammed with stuff.”

So it’s not ACTUALLY deep but only DECEPTIVELY so is my reading of the film, and this deceptive deepness is due to its being “crammed with stuff” like this Kasturi bit (which makes you think there’s more going on than on the surface). Of course, this doesn’t mean it’s not good — lack of depth doesn’t equate to “not a good film.” Lots of films can be pleasurably shallow and their greatness is from the slick surface and pop pleasures and how well-constructed they are.

From the depth POV (i.e. from a dhaadi-vachu-jolna-pai-carrying-film-scholarly POV), I guess one would sum this up as a minor film with major pleasures. Idhukku mele explain panna nammaala mudiyaadhu 🙂

Bran, I said I didn’t understand so pls to educate. Which part of that is argumentative?
Btw, 2006-07la how Bollywood is soaring above rest of India with if not path breaking, several films that moved off formula apdinnu perusA article pottingalE
Would you write one now comparing the current state of Marathi/Tamil movies and Hindi?
I know Kashayapa munivar is coming soon with his movies but one of them is a subramanyapuram remake 🙂
Bharadwaja munivar otoh seems to have gone overboard with his star-filled exercises.

raj: Unfortunately, some of us do not live in a world that’s conveniently split into black and white, where Hindi = evil, any other language = good. I do not feel the need to constantly (and jingoistically) keep asserting that Tamil movies are better, and if I wrote such an article today, I’d still have to point out the greatnesses of Udaan and Band Baaja Baraat and Dhobi Ghat, along with other films like Ishqiya or No One Killed Jessica or Yeh Saali Zindagi that may not have been as overall-great but were still very, very good.

BTW, can you point me to this article that you keep talking about? I remember one (maybe it was a Between Reviews) saying how LRM, Dor, Rang De Basanti etc. had brought new sheen to Bollywood, and that being a great year for Hindi cinema. I don’t recall any comparison article where I said Hindi films “were soaring over rest of India.”

But yes, I do feel that at least for the next few years, Bollywood will not be as “exciting” a place as regional cinema, because the things that are new here have already been done there two-three years back. Aaranya Kaandam in Hindi, today, would not be as thrilling or new a product as the one in Tamil. It would not be breaking new ground, and it would be yet another West-looking noir. I have a feeling more and more Tamil filmmakers are going to find an urban voice that’s nominally Tamil but really a dialect of Hollywood — and that’s great IMO.

Things that are new here alredy done in hindi. Then whatever was done in hindi was also done elsewhere before.
You seem to be proud that Tamil is just cottoning on to what was done in hindi already. Isn’t that jingoism?

And I said what do you think of the comparison now? For that you come back with a derisive tamil films are doing only now what hindi had done already and imply that I am being jingoistc meaning I am claiming that tamil films are better now. When did I say that? Current state pathi unga opinion dhaane ketten?
So the problem seems to be at your end wherein you take any comment of mine as a insult on hindi and react jingoisticallly.

raj: “Then whatever was done in hindi was also done elsewhere before.” of course. did I say that Hindi cinema “invented” these things? What a funny man you become when you tie yourself up in knots.

“For that you come back with a derisive tamil films are doing only now what hindi had done already…” Wow, you saw derision there? Man, your hate must really run deep.

I guess through your perspective it’s only natural and inevitable that a simple statement of fact is read as something said “proudly.” I think I understand your jingoism better now. Thank you for these rare insights into your self — truly, muchly, deeply.

Hindi films are much better on an average to tam movies… There is no comparison. For every subrahmanyapuram there are ten time the trash churned out by Vijay and co…sura, kaatukaran, vootukaran and all the nonsense movies…

A lot of us tam guys have this complex about ourselves in every sphere of life. Especially in movies we feel we have to assert the good tam movies and talent to rest of India. Point out that hrithik won national award for best choreography performance (mein aaisa kyun hoon from lakshya)… and a tamilian listening in will quickly point – did you know it was choreographed by Prabhu Deva?

The image of an average indian about tam movie is what he/she gets flipping through TV channels and passes by SUN TV or K TV for 2 secs where a vadivelu is most probably doing on of his shit jokes like “vachutaangayyyaaaaa ” or something. or may be it is a vijay doing one of his kuthu songs with the new mumbai heroine who will definitely be multiple shades lighter than him (we are not racists are we 🙂 ? Our heroines generally just happen to be fair maidens.)

Sparsely made madurai movies will not clean the outlook on tamil movies. It is when the industry rids itself of Gabten, Ilayathalapathi, etc that we can look forward to broad improvements

Ash: I honestly don’t see how these comparisons can be made between Bollywood and Kollywood and Tollywood or even Hollywood. Every industry is a prisoner of its financiers and audiences, and as a consequence, every industry does some things well, some things not so well. There’s good stuff and crappy stuff everywhere.

But instead of being thankful for being able to enjoy the best of all worlds, we get bogged down in “is better than” crap. I nearly came to (verbal) blows the other day with a friend after we’d heard a great Kannadasan song and he said, “Andha Gulzar-aala indha maadhiri-laam ezhudha mudiyuma?” I was like, they are poles apart in styles — how can you even begin to compare? (At least Gulzar and early-period Vairamuthu I can understand.) And the funny thing is that he doesn’t even understand much Hindi or follow Hindi movies/music 🙂

Maybe you’re right about there being some kind of complex behind all this. Since you brought this up, do you have a theory why?

Tamil films are better in hindi in many ways.Equally Hindi films are better than tamil films in many other ways.
The target audience,objectives,scope,ambtition and the production values of these two industries are completely different.
To compare these two and to conclude one is better than the other would be an exercise in futility.

If tamil cinema is regional then hindi cinema is regional too.I have never known any amitabh’s movie running for more than
20 days in any interior town of south india.

Hindi films were behind tamil cinema till 2001 (Sorry for the comparison!) when both lagaan and DCH happened at the same time.From then on i would say
the primacy for quality/experimentaion/handling of different genres of films have gone to the hindi industry.But from 2008
it has slowly but defintely tilted once again in favour of tamil films.I am just saying one is better if viewed i na cross sectional way

This is an exciting phase for the tamil film industry.Lets hope 2011 will be another 2010.Lets enjoy the films produced
and not compare.

An industry that has produced an Ilayaraja and a ARR cannot feel inferior and suffer from a complex.The city which
is said to be virulently anti hindi produced an ARR whose little knowledge in hindi did not stop him conquering india with
compositions in that language.I used to wonder why a bangalore, a hyderabad or a trivandrum which worships hindi has not produced
an equivalent of ARR but a hindi hating chennai. It is something called ‘Pride’.Of course if i say that i will be accused
as a fanatic.I am ok with that

A majority hindi group can wear its jingoism under the cloak of nationalism.Unfortunately minority
tamil jingoism will be called fanaticism.Both are dangerous but the former more so

When you see motives in my post, why is me doing the same funny? You attributed motives to me that didn’t exist as I pointed out. You also tangled in knots?
And ash has a complex himself – more likely herself – that of being ashamed of the blackiness of gaptun, vijay etc.

And wherefrom this superior “I enjoy both Gulzar and Kannadasan. These buggers vandhuttanga kannadasan only jingoists” attitude?
Njingalukku onv kurup ariyAmO? Sirivennala seetharama sastry telusA? Should I feel superior then for enjoying them apart from gulzar and kannadasan?
Actually, this attitude of enakku hindiyum tamizhum pidikkum so I’ll concoct theories of complex against anyone who is not obseqious toward hindi is an attitude that can be examined instead

raj: I know I can (along with the readers of this site) always count on you for entertainment but you have surpassed yourself — interpreting “I like idli and I like aloo paratha” as “I like idli and I like aloo paratha and therefore I am better than you.” The second does not follow from the first at all in my world, but how interesting it must be to live in yours! No, really!

Hello? Enna ipdi uncharacteristicA kanna moodikittu kaththi veesarreenga?
Let’s go back to the first post – I asked your opinion on current hindi and tamil cinema comparison. You were the one who flew off the handle bringing in complex equations on my hatred of hindi – did I ever say about tamil being better than hindi. I merely asked your opinion. You flew off and brought in jingoism. Ippo uncharacteristically, you are even blindly attacking without logic!

Talking of jingoism, what is the word for feeling ashamed about vadivel’s comedy – he has hits and misses like any other actor but what about the derisive tone of Ash. And you wanted that person to do a psycho analysis of tamil defensive mentality. 😆
Clearly shows where your sympathy lies and clearly shows your lack of perspective in this issue.What’s your response to my query on seetarama sastry and kurup? You felt superior to your friend for being able to enjoy Gulzar and Kannadasan, didn’t you? Let’s leave you – in general this is common defence among those who follow hindi and tamil that they are more liberal because of that – in which case I am superior to you folks because I don’t have a closed mind that can only process hindi and tamil, by your standards, not mine. I don’t think too much about what language it is.
Summa indha liberal poochandi ellaam kaatta venaam

@kainattu – whoa! just when i thought u were making some sensible points, comes this whole ‘only Chennaiproduced AR’ track.. really,ever heard of names of santosh shivan, RGV etc. And what does it even have to do with the topic..

‘But yes, I do feel that at least for the next few years, Bollywood will not be as “exciting” a place as regional cinema, because the things that are new here have already been done there two-three years back’

The movies that are new currently in Hindi like ready singham gajini were done here already:).

Er… I am not shouting 🙂 Just stating something. Just like, earlier, I wasn’t saying that thing about Hindi cinema “proudly. Just like I wasn’t saying that Hindi cinema invented these things. And just as I wasn’t saying that Hindi cinema is the best in the Milky Way.

You really must stop imagining things, dear chap.

About my query to Ash, I was curious to hear his/her explanation. People say things and you want to know why they said these things, what the thought process is. Some of us like to hear opinions about Hitler even if we personally think Nazism was a horrible thing.

It’s called listening to someone else’s point of view. You should try it sometime. Or you could continue to seal yourself in an echo chamber of your own thoughts. The choice is yours, really.

Nice guy: The point was not about the blockbuster crap in Hindi but about the genre/niche films. I think everyone here is agreed on the fact that there are many crappy films in Hindi too.

BR – I am only able to theorize anecdotal-y based on perceived behavior of fellow tamils 🙂

So here it goes.. I think that there is a sense among tamils that our contribution to various realms of life in general has not been understood/appreciated by the rest of India. This is true more so in films. And this suppression/ not being recognized /frustration built up over years contributes to the instinct of getting defensive to any criticism and using even the most tangential references to boast/project a tamilians contribution. So when a person listens to Kannadasan’s beautiful work, he/she instinctively asks – “Can THEY create something like this?” It is another way of crying out – “Why? Why is this beauty not given the utmost admiration by the folks who do not think much of us (or think low of us)?” BTW, I will leave it up to you to imagine who “THEY” could be replaced with.

Thanks for asking the question. Love it when statements lead to further dialogue.

@ash “…our contribution to various realms of life in general has not been understood/appreciated by the rest of India. This is true more so in films. And this suppression/ not being recognized /frustration built up over years contributes to the instinct of getting defensive to any criticism and using even the most tangential references to boast/project a tamilians contribution.”

It is especially not so in films. IMHO it is obvious that raj has read a bit too much into brangan’s statements and you have over-generalised raj’s replies into a “tamil mentality” thing! I fear you have jumped to a rather divisive hypothesis here. I don’t think AVERAGE tamils bother about what other’s think of them let alone get frustrated for “lack of recognition”. On the contrary they are nothing short of supercilious when it comes to poetry, literature, film songs, folk music, food, vaastu, kalacharam, (skin colour… an AVERAGE tamil girl would want her groom to be brown skinned) and what not. So I don’t think there is any pent up frustration at work. Nobody sheds a tear for mgr or sivaji not being known across the vindhyas! Regarding prabhu deva, i think people in the south and even the tamils give a damn, in the north he had somehow acquired this image of a “south superstar”, even being compared to kamal-rajni during his heydays! 🙂

@brangan “Maybe you’re right about there being some kind of complex behind all this.”

Maybe there is a complex, but not of the inferior variety, surely your friend who swears by kannadasan will tell you that, until he does not realise he is being psychoanalysed telepathically by one of your readers! 🙂 Besides, for another movie and another review, I wonder if you would have used – pretentious – for “deceptively deep”…

My two cents on hindi-tamil, I would say none, genuflecting at the altars of ghosh and dasgupta!

And brangan, it must be interesting living in your bubble tto – flying off the handle when someone merely asks you to compare hindi and tamil films – imagining that they have insulted poor little hindi and giving sermons – can you see the mirror, dear friend. How defensive was that?

I know i am a few months late for this comment…But what an awesome..I was lucky to see this movie wth a lik eminded crowd.The movie got a standing applause at the end.For me,Who is an avid viewer of tamil cinema.This movie and Yudham sei is the saving grace of the industry otherwise littered with mindless action or revenge dramas .I loved this movie ,Am saddened this movie got such a limited release in chennai.

movie was like a different world (experience). those empty streets and abandoned mill premises (that fantastic gang war scene and also what a name for a maddened gang leader – gaja!) gave a video game like impression. apart from the visuals the movie had interesting dialogues and themes (the quote from gita). the characters were like cunning animals ready to prey. though the lead lady sounded much like a dubbed character strangely jackie was cool and was like a grizzly bear that is always calculating with its head down and eyes up. nowadays after watching too much “yuvan copycat” youtube videos i was unable to enjoy music because of the preconception of possible plagiarism 😦 . nevertheless a worthy film.

could someone please post the link from where i can download the subtitles?
or from where moifightclub copy pasted it?
I’m dying to see this movie, been searching for more than 6 months all over the net.
Please your reply will be highly appreciated.

“And this suppression/ not being recognized /frustration built up over years contributes to the instinct of getting defensive to any criticism and using even the most tangential references to boast/project a tamilians contribution.”

Even I was not ok with Subbu’s voice and looks, but I told myself that since Subbu was aspiring to become an actor, probably she ran from some other states like Andhra (her voice sounded like that to me) and hence that nonstick nature of her character. I thus appreciated that this director has thought of how a wannabe actress would be.

It felt odd at a scene where water splashes beautifully, like beauty shouldn’t be fed in this film.

The climax score appears sad or what-you-call? pathos? I was wondering why this sad piece while we should be celebrating her triumph, just like how Vidya Balan was walking in Kahaani.

And both the movies were alike in this respect, that Basha moment, ellarum avara appavi nu nenachittu iruppanga 😛

But somehow I did not feel like Subbu and Sappa were romancing at any point, may be it was their nature of romance, or may be I was having a prejudice that no woman would be this childish 😛

She could have shot Pasupathi right? May be she had a soft corner for this good man in a bad gang.

This movie too has warm moments, but they aren’t artificial like in moodarkoodam, for example, we find the kid helping Pasupathi by giving the vellakkaran mookupodi when he breaks out in helplessness. But wouldn’t that make us forget these films for that reason? In other words, what will make you hold Aaranya kaandam in high esteem after these 2.5 years?

When she was about to be hit by a heavy vehicle and when Sappai’s voice over appears, I was like wow, whatay twist, all pullu, puzhu, manushan coming into the hands of karma, but wait, then she moves back and says, ‘muttaal’, I was speechless! Like you rightly said in the beginning “gradually, things begin to cohere and reshape your entire thus-far experience, and you slap your forehead and smile and say wow! This is one of those films.” WOW!